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Custom Kitchen Recycling Cabinet Storage Ideas

February 6th, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments

Several years ago I custom manufactured a kitchen recycling center as a roll around cabinet. It provided storage for all of the recyclables and worked as additional countertop space as well. The units should only be manufactured for kitchens that are spacious. The overall dimensions of the bin was thirty six inches high, sixty inches long and twenty one inches deep.

The roll-around storage unit was created after brain-storming through many ideas that the customer had for designing this special cupboard. The final product was manufactured using Formica on all of the exterior and interior surfaces. We used plastic laminate because it is easy to clean and a very durable product.



Three Recycling Bin Trash Cans

The idea was to have three tall kitchen trash cans that fit snugly into custom cut holes inside of the cabinet. The way they would be accessed was from the top of the rolling base kitchen cabinet by way of a lift-lid counter. The insert areas were designed so that the cans did not rest tight against the trash can rims, but allowed enough room to get your hands into position to remove them once they were filled with recyclables.

Lift-lid Top Design
To access the recyclable containers the countertop was designed to be lifted up. The top was secured in place with stainless-steel piano hinge along the entire backside of the unit. There was a chain attached on both sides of the cabinet so the door would not open past the ninety-plus-degree mark. The design did not allow for a 1-1/2” thick top design, but rather the lid was only three quarters (3/4”) of an inch thick.

Three Tall Trash Cans
The three storage bins for aluminum cans, plastic containers and news-papers were tall Rubber-Made trash cans that were purchased from Wal-mart. Because the plastic trash bins were purchased from a reputable company there were no concerns about not being able to find replacements if necessary.

The final cabinet design was perfectly suited for the purpose of storing recyclables in the kitchen until they could be transferred to the recycling bins. On other occasions, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners, the roll around recycling storage cabinet could be used as a buffet counter for placing foods on.

Purchasing a Recycling Trash Can Center
There are many ideas that can be found at places such as Kitchen Source for storing recyclables if you don’t want to have a custom unit made. These pre-fabricated units are moderately priced and should not cost much to have your cabinet manufacture install them.

  1. B. Breen
    May 2nd, 2010 at 04:48 | #1

    Several years ago I renovated my kitchen. It was a galley-type kitchen with a pantry at the end. In order to keep recyclables out of my kitchen I put 2 openings in the wall where I could throw recyclables into blue boxes located in a small box built onto the outside of the house. On garbage day I could walk outside and open the box from my yard and remove the blue boxes. It was so clean and easy to use.

  2. admin
    May 2nd, 2010 at 10:45 | #2

    Hey B, nice idea there. There are so many creative things we can do if we just set our minds to think different than the acceptable norm.

  3. June 8th, 2010 at 14:50 | #3

    Cool post/article on kitchen recycling spaces. I dug around for a recent client and found Hafele.com to stock a wide variety of recycling products. Rev-A-Shelf also combines their product with cans. Thanks!

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